The appalling problems with J&J’s vaginal mesh could not have persisted for so long without a basic lack of respect for women and their bodies

The ongoing vaginal mesh implant scandal is a complex affair, with group lawsuits erupting all around the world, including the US, the UK and Australia. Last week, Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit was ordered to pay a record $57m in damages to a woman called Ella Ebaugh. The J&J implant, launched without a clinical trial, is still marketed, often in cases involving traumatic births, years after it was known to cause appalling problems to women such as Ebaugh, including intense pelvic pain and torn bladders and vaginas, leading to agonising sex and incontinence.

While many women don’t have problems with vaginal meshes, those who do suffer horribly.